Individual articles in stores often are held in display racks that firmly clamp and retain each article but allow removal. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,182,455 to Zurawin discloses a holder for beverage cans, in which the holder defines a series of clamping arcs. Each beverage can is clamped by friction in an arc of greater than 180.degree.. Another rack or holder is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,284,025 to Fridolph, in which the holder is axially opened to insert a spool of thread. Cylindrical holders for a paper roll are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 1,827,000 to Duffin. Spools of thread are carded in a simple magazine in U.S. Pat. No. 3,018,067 to Vandervoort. A cylinder for holding several belts in shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,802,577 to O'Leary.
As shown by at least some of these examples of prior art, frictional holders long have been used for reliably holding a plurality of hard surfaced articles having regular, known size for commercial display. Yet often times in a home environment it is desired to hold and releasably retain a plurality of articles that are not of uniform size or hard surface, for which such commercial racks are not well suited. Especially in the case of apparel belts, storage and display in home closets is ill-achieved by commercial display racks. Often belts are stored on hooks or large rings, but these do not offer easy access to each belt.
Thus, it would be desirable to create a belt rack suited for home use, which allows a belt of non-predetermined size to be received and held. Similarly, it would be desirable that such a belt rack readily display its entire contents. Further, the rack should allow any of the belts it may contain to be removed directly, without requiring the other belts in the rack to be shuffled.
To achieve the foregoing and other objects and in accordance with the purpose of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, the belt rack of this invention may comprise the following.